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Sculpture

Sculpture at Scripps introduces students to a variety of materials and techniques while addressing and exploring various models indicative to current sculptural practices: site, context, time, implementation of new media, process, aesthetics of the object, and relationships to the body. Topics covered include but are not limited to: conceptual development, structural principles, communicative possibilities of materials and physical forms, history and safety.

Over the course of the semester, students expand their comprehension of contemporary theory and technique, and learn to translate sophisticated concepts, content and emotions into three-dimensional forms.

Currently, the sculpture area at Scripps is headed by multidisciplinary artist and professor Adam Davis. In addition to teaching the sculpture curriculum, Professor Davis also teaches all levels of Ceramics, Fundamentals of Art, and Representations of the Male Body in Contemporary Art and Culture, a course that is offered as part of the Scripps Core programming.

History of Sculpture at Scripps College

Albert Stewart was born in Kensington, England in 1900. He displayed an early talent in drawing, and an interest in animals as subjects. In 1908 he moved to the United States with his grandfather, and took up sculpting in 1918. After serving in the RAF during World War II he returned to the United States and studied art at the Beaux Art Institute of Design and Art Students League. He worked as an assistant to his mentor, Paul Manship, from 1925-30. Manship was a leading Ameican proponent of the archaic trend in modern sculpture, and his influence has a formative effect on Stewart’s work.

Stewart experienced success early; after his bronze bear Silver King was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1925 he received several commissions for monumental architectural sculpture. Among these were the stone dolphin sculptures for the Seamen’s Memorial in New York City, 1930, and the pediment sculpture for the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., 1935.

Stewart was recommended to Millard Sheets and President Jaqua when they were looking for a sculptor for the art department at Scripps. They brought Albert Stewart to Claremont in 1939 to teach Humanities and sculpture. As a teacher he took a traditional approach to sculpture, insisting on anatomical correction, and simplification of form. Several works by Stewart stand on the Scripps campus: Man and Nature (1965) can be seen in front of the Humanities building, Eternal Primitive (1965), a mother and child, is situated in the Margaret Fowler garden, and the bronze fawn that drinks from the fountain in the Chinese garden to the west of the Mallot commons (1952).

Albert Stewart was nationally known as a sculptor of animal figures and architectural sculpture. He worked in all media – stone, bronze, and wood. He was the recipient of numerous art awards, and was commissioned to sculpt many public buildings, coast to coast.

Aldo Casanova became Professor of Sculpture at Scripps College in 1966. Casanova received his B.A. and M.F.A. at San Francisco State University, and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Among many honors and awards was the Lewis Comfort Tiffany Purchase Award in 1970 and the Prix de Roma, in 1958-1961. In 1975, Casanova was Sculptor-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome. His work is included in major collections, including the Whitney Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Collection in Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the U.C.L.A. Sculpture Garden. Aldo Casanova became Professor Emeritus in 1999. Several of his works can be seen around the Claremont campuses, such as the bronze at the south end of Jacqua Quad.